6/7/2012

“Yo, Ali, you are a liar– you did a years long crime wave, and there is more going to come out. You fucked me over three years ago, and you are getting your dues now. Dude, you need to resign and go off and hide. Man, the Feds gonna expand their investigation into your crime wave. And you know what I am talking about. I do feel sorry for Mama Lydia, but for you to invoke her on your FB page is disgusting. She is not proud to have a felon turned Uncle Tom and she has told you that many times. If you don’t resign, this is going to keep dribbling out and will cross into what you did in other states, and involve drugs — yeah, come on Ali, it was not just some booze. And it could bring down others close to you and you know what I am talkin about. Remember those pictures, or were you too stoned to remember. Well, I remember and I’ve got the pics. Ali, we used to be tight. You need to walk away dude, now or it’s all going to come out. Peeps already talking about you, and they looking to drop some dimes. Walk away now — think of yourself and your family. You already fucked up enough things. Dude, you ain’t gonna win this one – all the shit that you, Mama Lydia and your bro been trying so hard to hide under the rug is gonna come out. You ain’t gonna be able to stand no federal investigation.”

It sounds like it’s written by someone who thinks everyone is a criminal, and that vague threats of criminality will frighten people.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin explains the reasons behind the day of silence. The idea is: contact your member of Congress to get them to investigate the SWATtings and other harassment. Michelle explains how here. Excerpt:

Never in the eight years that I have worked as an independent blogger have I seen such a concerted threat to the fundamental right of citizen journalists to speak their minds freely and without fear of bodily harm.

Again, I will say: there are mainstream media journalists who are scared to write about this story. I do not say this lightly. I have been told this is the case.

Alan M. Dershowitz’s Perspective: State Attorney Angela Corey, the prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case, recently called the Dean of Harvard Law School to complain about my criticism of some of her actions.

She was transferred to the Office of Communications and proceeded to engage in a 40-minute rant, during which she threatened to sue Harvard Law School, to try to get me disciplined by the Bar Association and to file charges against me for libel and slander.

She said that because I work for Harvard and am identified as a professor she had the right to sue Harvard.

When the communications official explained to her that I have a right to express my opinion as “a matter of academic freedom,” and that Harvard has no control over what I say, she did not seem to understand.

She persisted in her nonstop whining, claiming that she is prohibited from responding to my attacks by the rules of professional responsibility — without mentioning that she has repeatedly held her own press conferences and made public statements throughout her career.

It makes no difference to me who the personalities are here. Democrat, Republican, annoying (but principled!) Harvard Law Professor — everyone deserves the right to speak out publicly without being retaliated against in a thuggish fashion.

Kimberlin denied he was responsible for the post, even saying that he does not maintain any online presence and said he and his family have been victims of threats themselves and accused the bloggers of constructing a “false narrative” about him.

“I don’t blog, I don’t comment, I don’t tweet on any blogs at all. This is a right-wing attack on me and my organizations and it’s a smear job. It’s a swift boat action against us,” Kimberlin said. “What they’re doing is an obstruction of justice and it’s defamatory. We’re cooperating with the authorities in this matter. They have engaged in a massive smear campaign against us that has resulted in death threats to me and my family and to others associated with us.”

I’m the director of several non profits in the area I work with human rights issues and government accountability issues and so it’s part of my job to, to work on the internet because it’s basically a social networking job and so I get Google alerts all the time mentioning my my organizations, my name what work we do and (inaudible).

So the job is “basically a social networking job” and it’s part of his job “to work on the Internet” but he “does not maintain any online presence.” Got it.

Some positive developments occurred yesterday for several of us who have suffered retaliation in our personal lives for our political views.

Yesterday Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator for Georgia, wrote Eric Holder to request a federal investigation of politically motivated SWATtings:

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I am writing with concern regarding recent reports that several members of the community of online political commentators have been targeted with harassing and frightening actions. Any potentially criminal action that incites fear, seeks to silence a dissenting opinion, and collaterally wastes the resources of law enforcement should be given close scrutiny at all levels.

According to these individuals’ reports, these dangerous hoaxes, also known as “SWAT-ting,” have a perpetrator contacting a local police department to report some type of violent incident at the home of the target. It is believed that these callers utilize some of the less traditional telecommunications methods, including voice over IP (VOIP) to make the call appear as though it is coming from the target residence and to better hide the true identity of the caller.

In response, a dispatcher then sends a large number of understandably anxious police units, in a heightened state of readiness, to the home of the still unsuspecting target. The first that the target or their unsuspecting family learns of this false report to law enforcement is when they are shocked to see an abnormal police presence descending on their residence.

The use of SWAT-ting as a harassment tool is apparently not new, but its use as a tool for targeting political speech appears to be a more recent development. During the last year, some of the more widely reported cases of SWAT-ting have taken place against blog operators across the country, including in Georgia. The emerging pattern is both disturbing and dangerous.

While these incidences are currently small in number, and have fortunately not led to any accidental physical harm, they are extremely concerning. The perpetrators appear to be targeting individuals who are vigorously exercising their First Amendment rights to political speech. As you know, these reported efforts to intimidate those who choose to enter the political forum and express their opinions are in conflict with the founding principles of our nation.

Regardless of any potential political differences that may exist, threats and intimidation have no place in our national political discourse. Those who choose to enter into that political discourse should not have to worry about potential threats to their or their family’s safety.

While I am certain that local law enforcement is reviewing each of these instances, I am asking you to please look into each of these cases as well to determine if any federal laws may have been violated. Future targets of SWAT-ting, whether engaged in political speech or not, may not be so fortunate as to escape physical harm.

In a story linked by Drudge, ABC News covered the story and reported further details about the SWATtings. One detail that I had known but had not made public was that Erickson’s SWATting was more serious than was previously realized. Erickson had previously reported, based on statements from the patrol officers, that the caller said there had been an “accidental” shooting. But based on the call, it is now known that the caller reported that he had killed his wife:

Late last month, Erick Erickson, the editor of the conservative site RedState.com, was the victim of the same type of targeting. He had written about Frey’s case just a few days before.

Erickson sat at home in Macon, Georgia with his family while his children played outside over Memorial Day weekend when two sheriff’s deputies drove to the house after receiving a phone call about Erickson allegedly shooting his wife.

“My first thought was, ‘What have the kids done?'” Erickson said after seeing the police car outside his home. “The police officer approached me in the driveway and said it was a call about an accidental shooting. According to the 911 call, the person claimed I had killed my wife.”

If this isn’t the same SWATter from the previous incidents, I’ll eat my hat. And I like my hat.

The absolute best part of the ABC piece? I am now a “prominent blogger”!

ABC News spoke with two prominent conservative bloggers who were victims of SWAT-ting, a hoax tactic used by some hackers to infiltrate a victim’s phone system, often through voice over IP (VOIP) technology to make calls appear as if they are coming from a residence. The perpetrators call police to report a violent crime at that home to which the police respond, sometimes with SWAT teams.

Just after midnight on July 1, 2011, Patrick Frey, a deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles and a conservative blogger who writes under the name “Patterico,” heard a pounding at his door as sheriff’s deputies arrived to investigate a call from Frey’s home about a man who claimed he had killed his wife. But no one in Frey’s home had been killed, and no one had made a phone call to the police.

“It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed,” Frey wrote on his blog about the incident.

Meanwhile, the thugs supporting Brett Kimberlin have gone after Ali Akbar, the head of the National Bloggers’ Club legal defense fund for those harassed by Brett Kimberlin. The Breitbart Unmasked site published details of a felony conviction Ali has on his record, forcing Ali to take to his Facebook page, explain the background of his criminal mistake, and promise not to back down.

In the past two weeks, hackers have tried accessing my email accounts, they’ve placed a fake SWAT call on a colleague, and just two days ago they posted the address and picture of my mother’s home in an attempt to incite unlawful behavior—or violence.

This is all because the National Bloggers Club is raising funds to relieve some of Aaron Walker’s financial strife—caused by his own legal run-in with Kimberlin. I became a target.

Kimberlin has notified my attorneys that he intends to sue me and my organization directly. By bringing up my past, he hopes to destroy my credibility. By bringing my family into it, he aspires to frighten me into silence.

Despite all of this, I’ll stand for free speech. We’re going to get the peace order against Walker overturned, restore his First Amendment rights, and fight the thugs who are bullying my family.

This is a dangerous man, especially for someone in my position. Note the following from the book written about him, Citizen K:

“For three months, Kimberlin resided at the federal prison in prison in Terra Haute, Indiana, in a unit reserved for convicts awaiting long-term assignments to other institutions. . . . He had resisted a sexual predator by tossing powdered chlorine cleanser in his face. The predator was African American, Kimberlin told me, and as he fended him off he shouted, ‘You f–king n–r! You motherf–kng n–r! Get the f–k away from me! I’ll kill you, you motherf–r!’ Kimberlin enjoyed telling this story.”

I’m going to remain a target because I’m not backing down. I’m an imperfect man still finding my way back to the arms of a loving Father. But right is right and wrong is wrong and Kimberlin cannot hide from the sunlight he’s being exposed to.

Your continued prayers and standing with the other victims and I at KimberlinFiles.org is truly humbling and much appreciated.

I can’t say that we know why the most recent SWATting happened, or any of them, with certainty. But further investigation is certainly warranted. Kimberlin supporters like to call discussing the SWATtings a public trial by blog — mainly because it’s yet another way for them to portray my public speech about matters of public interest as somehow violating my job duties. But that’s nonsense. None of this is a trial by blog. We just want the matter fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.

“We’ve got over a dozen lawyers coordinating on this now, volunteering their time. Aaron’s first amendment rights are being violated when he is barred from even being able to publicly mention the case or Kimberlin’s violent past,” said Bloggers Club president Ali A. Akbar.

Akbar continued, “Yesterday they came after the Bloggers Club and my family — my family. We’re not stopping. We’ve got to raise $5,000 more dollars to continue to stand with Aaron Walker and I’m positive supporters will continue to step up.”

This is not an easy thing to do, folks. There are Big Media reporters who are literally scared to report the story. Please support anyone willing to stick their necks out.

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